Author Topic: Wasting food  (Read 20797 times)

dilinger

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #50 on: January 14, 2016, 08:08:06 PM »
Dumpster diving is, IMO, disgusting

Yeah, we had friends who felt the same way. Then we'd take them along with us, or help us sort stuff, and they'd be shocked at how clean everything was, and their minds would be changed. An example of something we'd find often is  a double-bagged garbage bag full of peppers that were themselves individually plastic-wrapped.. Peppers that were fine, mind you. It depends on where you go, of course, but dumpster diving is only disgusting if you go to places with disgusting dumpsters in disgusting weather (I hate the heat, that's why I left the east coast).

elaine amj

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #51 on: January 15, 2016, 08:22:23 AM »
Question: does anyone ever save the sauces from their leftover food? I made a pork stew last night in my instant pot and used too much liquid. After packing up 3 lunches worth of leftovers (YUM), I had to throw away about 2 cups of delicious stew liquid. A few days before, I also poured out 2-3 cups of sauce after making chicken adobo.

Feels like such a waste.

GuitarStv

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #52 on: January 15, 2016, 08:38:27 AM »
Throw it in a crock pot with some water, veggies, and barley for a nice soup.

honeybbq

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #53 on: January 15, 2016, 09:17:07 AM »
Question: does anyone ever save the sauces from their leftover food? I made a pork stew last night in my instant pot and used too much liquid. After packing up 3 lunches worth of leftovers (YUM), I had to throw away about 2 cups of delicious stew liquid. A few days before, I also poured out 2-3 cups of sauce after making chicken adobo.

Feels like such a waste.

I'd save that for a marinade. Or soup base for the next time I cooked a stew.

swick

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #54 on: January 15, 2016, 12:44:10 PM »
Question: does anyone ever save the sauces from their leftover food? I made a pork stew last night in my instant pot and used too much liquid. After packing up 3 lunches worth of leftovers (YUM), I had to throw away about 2 cups of delicious stew liquid. A few days before, I also poured out 2-3 cups of sauce after making chicken adobo.

Feels like such a waste.

I'd save that for a marinade. Or soup base for the next time I cooked a stew.

Yep sounds like it would make an awesome "Garbage Stew/Soup" base. My Grandpa used to make a soup/stew once a week with whatever meat juices/cooking liquids/odds and ends of veggies/meats/grains etc.  and season to taste. He had a gift though and knew what went well together.  I remember one time my Grandma made it, after that it firmly became his job :)

I do this all the time, luckily I got my Grandpa's gift!

MandalayVA

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #55 on: January 15, 2016, 12:52:55 PM »
Question: does anyone ever save the sauces from their leftover food? I made a pork stew last night in my instant pot and used too much liquid. After packing up 3 lunches worth of leftovers (YUM), I had to throw away about 2 cups of delicious stew liquid. A few days before, I also poured out 2-3 cups of sauce after making chicken adobo.

Feels like such a waste.

Freeze it!  I do this all the time and use it to either boost flavor in stews or to make soup.  YOU'RE THROWING OUT LIQUID GOLD!!!!  :D

elaine amj

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #56 on: January 15, 2016, 01:08:52 PM »
So freeze it and then re-use it when making another stew/soup? In addition to all the little jars of stock I have in my freezer? So if I make a stew again, I would pull out my little jar of leftover stew stock, add a bit of my regular stock and go to town?

lightmyfire

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #57 on: January 15, 2016, 01:58:54 PM »
I HATE food waste.  It literally makes me sick to think of all the food we waste in this country.  I've pretty much got it down to a science exactly what and how much I need to buy each week.  Can't think of the last time I threw away something I intended to consume.  That said, it seems we actually do a better job than some other countries, at least with leftovers.  I thought this story was really interesting:

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/08/462351778/french-restaurants-now-required-to-offer-doggy-bags

I didn't know it was formerly unheard of to take your leftover food home from a French restaurant.  Sacre bleu!

plainjane

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #58 on: January 15, 2016, 03:17:25 PM »
Question: does anyone ever save the sauces from their leftover food? I made a pork stew last night in my instant pot and used too much liquid. After packing up 3 lunches worth of leftovers (YUM), I had to throw away about 2 cups of delicious stew liquid. A few days before, I also poured out 2-3 cups of sauce after making chicken adobo.

Couscous? Use instead of water or stock in a stir fry?  Deglazing liquid?  Thickened as an actual sauce on top of grilled veggies or meat? 

My favourite Thai takeout place (last visited months and months ago) always had a high sauce to solids & starch ratio (so much yummy coconut milk).  So we'd finish the meal, and then add it to some cooked eggplant, sweet potato, & chickpeas.  Simmer for 5-10 minutes and you've doubled the volume of meals for just a dollar or so more.

ETBen

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #59 on: January 16, 2016, 05:54:18 PM »
I have to admit that I have gotten so much better at this.  I can't believe how much food we wasted before. 

- better at freezing leftovers
- better at multi-use.  I was given some chicken thighs that were going to expire soon.  Roasted those.  On a salad x2 meals.  Sauteed into a curry x3 meals.
- non traditional meals.  When I was married, I felt like I had to make full meals all of the time.  Well, I had to or suffer the complaining of the man-child lol.  But with me and the two kids, meal time is much more flexible.

elaine amj

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #60 on: January 16, 2016, 08:47:14 PM »
U guys have inspired me - will save any future leftover sauces. I have a Tupperware labeled chickpea broth in my fridge now from boiling chickpeas :) Next is to figure out how to store them. Now that I am making stock, I keep 1 jar in the fridge plus at least one more in the freezer.

Home cooking all the time has meant lots of leftovers. Ran out of Tupperware today and resorted to packing portioned out lunches in ziploc bags. I have about 6-7 lunches frozen now and had to start using masking tape to label everything.

My freezer is getting packed!! We need to start eating all this food. Of course, I am trying to lose weight too and am calorie counting so forcing myself not to just make the "problem" go away by eating it lol.


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dorothyc

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #61 on: January 16, 2016, 09:10:06 PM »
U guys have inspired me - will save any future leftover sauces. I have a Tupperware labeled chickpea broth in my fridge now from boiling chickpeas :) Next is to figure out how to store them. Now that I am making stock, I keep 1 jar in the fridge plus at least one more in the freezer

I freeze stuff in Ziploc bags laid flat on a cookie sheet to freeze, so they are nice and flat. Makes for quicker thawing too. You can retrieve the cookie sheet once the item is frozen.

mohawkbrah

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #62 on: January 17, 2016, 12:53:06 AM »
my sister quite literally wastes half of all the food she buys. it's disgusting and really pisses me off

she'll also cook a meal and only eat half of it. im like why don't you only cook half portions?!

Gunny

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #63 on: January 17, 2016, 03:08:42 PM »
I think the MMM life style automatically results in less waste.  I know as we continue to tweak our frugality our food waste has dwindled to near zero. 

shelivesthedream

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #64 on: January 17, 2016, 03:35:57 PM »
I HATE food waste.  It literally makes me sick to think of all the food we waste in this country.  I've pretty much got it down to a science exactly what and how much I need to buy each week.  Can't think of the last time I threw away something I intended to consume.  That said, it seems we actually do a better job than some other countries, at least with leftovers.  I thought this story was really interesting:

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/08/462351778/french-restaurants-now-required-to-offer-doggy-bags

I didn't know it was formerly unheard of to take your leftover food home from a French restaurant.  Sacre bleu!

Home leftovers are part and parcel of normal life. However, for some reason taking a half-eaten restaurant meal home is disgusting to me. Maybe it's the name ("doggy bag" - ugh!), maybe it's the thought of half a cold, congealed pizza the next day. I'm not sure. But one crazy thought is that restaurants could just serve reasonable portions that a human can eat in one sitting!

esq

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #65 on: January 17, 2016, 06:43:25 PM »
Any teacher knows the extent to which food is wasted watching kids throw away their breakfasts and lunches.  Sometimes it's the district's fault - serving unripe pears, for example.  What kid is going to eat a pear that's hard as a rock?  I can only save so many pears, and the rest get tossed. 

When telling the kids to give back their unopened milk cartons, I've been told in the past the health department doesn't allow this, and it's a punishable action.

Kids in the U.S. learn at a very young age it's acceptable to throw away perfectly good food on a daily basis.


GuitarStv

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #66 on: January 18, 2016, 06:00:15 AM »
U guys have inspired me - will save any future leftover sauces. I have a Tupperware labeled chickpea broth in my fridge now from boiling chickpeas :) Next is to figure out how to store them. Now that I am making stock, I keep 1 jar in the fridge plus at least one more in the freezer

I freeze stuff in Ziploc bags laid flat on a cookie sheet to freeze, so they are nice and flat. Makes for quicker thawing too. You can retrieve the cookie sheet once the item is frozen.

+1 for the cookie sheet suggestion.  Once frozen you can stand all of the stuff up on end so that it's easy to thumb through in the freezer to see what's available.  Like a bunch of food LPs or something . . .

plainjane

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #67 on: January 18, 2016, 06:19:22 AM »
I freeze stuff in Ziploc bags laid flat on a cookie sheet to freeze, so they are nice and flat. Makes for quicker thawing too. You can retrieve the cookie sheet once the item is frozen.
+1 for the cookie sheet suggestion.  Once frozen you can stand all of the stuff up on end so that it's easy to thumb through in the freezer to see what's available.  Like a bunch of food LPs or something . . .

I just did this with the bacon I picked up on sale.  It makes a huge difference.  I guess it is like KonMari for my freezer.

I've had some trouble with freezing things on cookie sheets and getting them off again.  My trick was adding a silicon sheet to the cookie pan.  That way there isn't the suction or whatever it was that stuck the thing I was freezing to the sheet.  This way I can take the pan out, and peel off the sheet.

GuitarStv

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #68 on: January 18, 2016, 06:31:49 AM »
Turn the sheet upside down and bang it hard with your fist.  Stuff should pop right off.

elaine amj

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #69 on: January 18, 2016, 07:31:08 AM »
I am going to have to try this. On the weekend, I just laid my ziploc bags flat and stacked them so they ended up being little ziploc bundles. I'm assuming using the cookie sheet will help me lay them out flatter and thinner? I love the idea of taking less freezer space!

I doubt I can do this with liquids like stock though - right now I am using old yogurt tubs and tupperware.

GuitarStv

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #70 on: January 18, 2016, 07:41:59 AM »
liquids and stock freeze well in ziplock baggies.

elaine amj

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #71 on: January 18, 2016, 08:14:12 AM »
liquids and stock freeze well in ziplock baggies.

Will give it a go :)

iris lily

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #72 on: January 18, 2016, 08:26:43 AM »
It doesn't bother me  to waste food because I'm used to it. We pitch pounds and pounds and pounds of food each year. And then, there is the pounds and pounds of stuff that never even gets pulled from the garden.

 DH has huge gardens and produces much  than we can use and even when we give it away we have too much.

So no, wasting it doesn't make me sick or bother me.  Our food waste my all goes into the compost in and i recycled that way. That said, any food that we have cooked and prepared seldom goes to waste. I freeze leftovers, we eat them  later.

 I see people going too far IMHO in the battle of waste:

Not all foods are worth saving. Processed sugary salty crap  from stores isn't worth saving. We are not virtuous warriors on waste when we fore junk food through our intestines. I see this at potlucks when people bring purchased foods, the kind that are  seldom eaten, and then no one can throw the letovers away. Thee are cries of " oh I caaaaaant waste this!" Sigh

I also see people who "can't stand  to see food wasted" go to ridiculous lengths of waste, preserving food has already been produced, and further wasting the earth's resources. My friend will take small leftovers from a restaurant some for her dogs using up lage plastic containers tha she throws away when she gets home.  Ouch, THAT is wasteful. I would wrap it in a paper napkin.

This same person orders a pizza at home, eats two slices, and uses up several hunks of aluminum foil for wrapping. She will not  re-use the foil, and she seldom eas the pizza, but she feels compelled to wrap and save it due to a  food waste obsession that people seem to have.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2016, 08:46:35 AM by iris lily »

clarkfan1979

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #73 on: January 18, 2016, 11:07:02 AM »
I learned through trial and error. I used to waste a lot of food due to inexperience. I have also moved to different climates which made it more difficult. I eventually figured it out. The hardest thing for me not to waste was lettuce. I am pretty close to zero waste now.

Nickels Dimes Quarters

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Re: Wasting food
« Reply #74 on: January 18, 2016, 01:30:07 PM »
My continual problem is buying too much in the first place. I have to work hard to plan out cooking, lunches and snacks without over-buying ingredients. If I have too much, we can get bored of eating the same things too many days in a row.

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